Police are releasing few details about Syracuse's latest homicide

Syracuse, NY -- Police are saying little about the shooting death of a 17-year-old Syracuse boy on the city’s Southside this morning.

Kiwan Rush was found unconscious and not breathing at 12:18 a.m. in the 100 block of Eastman Avenue, Police Chief Frank Fowler said in a news conference.

Police were sent to the block-long street between South Avenue and May Avenue after reports of multiple gunshots being fired were called into the Onondaga 911 Center. One call also said that there was a man down near a van.

When police arrived on the scene, they found Rush near a van in a driveway, Fowler said. Rush, who had a gunshot wound, was taken to University Hospital. Rush was pronounced dead at 1:03 a.m., the chief said.

The police chief said that while he was encouraged that so many people called to report the shooting, he’s discouraged that another young person has died on the city’s streets.

Police have declined to release any information, including the victim’s address, citing the on-going investigation into Rush’s death.

Residents, who wished not to be identified, said they heard gunshots, at least four or five shots. One resident said she told police she saw an exchange of gunfire between two men on May Avenue and another said that police recovered spent shells at the corner of May and Eastman avenues.

Neighbors also pointed out where police found Rush, by a van on the south side of Eastman Avenue, one house in from the South Avenue intersection.

Eastman Avenue has eight houses on the street, with two already decorated for Halloween. The house nearest to where Rush was found is boarded up.

This was not the first time Rush has been shot, according to a story that ran May 31, 2008, in The Post-Standard. Rush, who was 15 at the time, and a 16-year-old male told police they were standing in front of a home in the 1200 block of South Avenue about 9 p.m. May 30 when they were both shot by someone in a passing vehicle. Rush was shot once in the right thigh and the other youth was shot in the chest, police said at the time. Both were treated at University Hospital.

Fowler said the investigation into the shooting is ongoing, and police are looking for witnesses. He has asked that anyone with information call the Criminal Investigation Division at 442-5222.